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Monday, 29 September 2014

Kilburn
Unemployed Workers Group continues its engagement in local benefits
tourism on a low budget or geographical 'fieldwork' research with a leafleting session
at Harlesden Jobcentre, 161-163 High Street, Harlesden, NW10 4TL on Tuesday 30 September, 10am till 11am.

Focusing on how to get to Harlesden Jobcentre

The following day
we have an excurcion with Kate Belgrave and her blogger colleagues to
the Jobcentre at 55 Station Road, Clacton-on-Sea, Essex CO15
1RS.

Hidden amidst the drama of the Scottish independence referendum,
last week saw the welcome news that the Department for Communities &
Local Government had agreed to look again at its outrageous decision to
end funding for the Local Welfare Assistance schemes that replaced the
Discretionary Social Fund Crisis Loans and Community Care Grants. The
move followed an application for Judicial Review of ministers’ decision
by Christian Jump, a disabled Cheshire resident, who was represented by
Doughty Street Chambers and Public Law Solicitors, and backed by the
Child Poverty Action Group.

The Discretionary Social Fund had many problems, but like many
others, Z2K always feared that the devolution of responsibility to local
authorities would make those problems even worse. The last Labour
Government consulted on very similar proposals to those implemented by
the Coalition last year, but backed off after intense lobbying by
anti-poverty campaigners. It was little surprise to see them resurface
when the Coalition took office. But even the most cynical observers were
shocked by the Government sneaking out news of the £178 million cut in
the fine print of the local government funding settlement over Christmas
break....

Friday, 26 September 2014

Report by Swheatie of the KUWG. Photos by Herbie the Hairless of the KUWG

The photos below came to Swheatie's inbox today, following the KUWG meeting on 11 November after we had demonstrated outside Atos Neasden the previous Thursday. Herbie the Hairless was clearly enamoured with his new picture-taking toy at that meeting, as he snapped at the decorations surrounding the meeting.

Unite the Union Community Section, Ealing branch are having a TTIP awareness stall in Ealing 11to 1.30
Sat and 12 to 2 on Sunday Ealing Broadway outside the centre opposite
the Black Horse Public House.

From Pilgrim Tucker, Regional Organiser for Unite the Union Community Section

Hi, can you join us on Tuesday morning?

Tuesday 30th September 10am - 12 noon

Solidarity action for workers at Crown packaging Canada

at the Business Design Centre, 52 Upper Street, Islington, N1 0QH.

Workers
at Crown have been on strike for almost twelve months over draconian
pay cuts and the attempted elimination of the union’s physical presence
from the workplace.

They
have asked for our help and support so we plan to demonstrate outside a
conference organised by their employers. More info on the dispute
here: http://www.takebacksnomore.ca/

Hope to see you there, fares covered if you need them, but bring a receipt.

Pilgrim

07970 126249

Swheatie of the KUWG adds explanation of why this is relevant to people in the UK

Abuses of bargaining power by global corporations have been more prevalent in the USA and Canada than in EU countries, becauase there have traditionally been better social protections for worker within the EU. But corporate lobbyists and EU commissioners seem keen to change that irrevocably, making the world the playing field of global corporations keen to shift production to where labour costs and workers' rights are less. That has been one of the major reasons that 'active labour market policies' such as Tory welfare reforms place far greater responsibility on workers and the 'reserve army of labour' than on employers. It is also leading to the negotiation of 'free trade' agreements between the EU and the USA (Transatlantic Trade & Investment Partnership — TTIP) and the EU and Canada (Comprehensive Economic Trade Agreement — CETA).By such agreements that the negotiators would love to have passed before the public wakes up to the contents that they have been left ignorant of by the BBC and other mainstream broadcasting channels and that the negotiators do not want our elected representatives in the European Parliament to know about, corporate lawyers would render democracy null and void. Mechanisms such as 'Investor to State Dispute Settlement' arrangements in TTIP and similar in CETA would be, as John Hilary of War on Want has said at a public meeting I attended some months ago now — "like a magic bullet." He said that it would be like the scene in one of the 'Indiana Jones' movies where the eponimous 'hero' is faced by a sword wielding tribesman wielding a sword in skilful display some distance away, takes out his pistol from its holster, and shoots the swordsman dead.See previous posts on this blog about TTIP and CETA, and spread the word about Unite the Union's

Tuesday 30th September 10am - 12 noon

Solidarity action for workers at Crown packaging Canada

at the Business Design Centre, 52 Upper Street, Islington, N1 0QH.
(KUWG activists will be largely elsewhere at that time by prior arrangement within the London Borough of Brent side of our Brent & Camden heartland, but it is still important to us to help get this word out, especially as viewing stats for this blog over the past week reveal that we have a truly global audience:

From 6 Billion Ways — a coalition of campaigners on local and global justice issues, aiming to build a broad movement for progress change

***free event – no need to register***

It will cost at least one million jobs. It will lock in fossil fuel
dependency for the coming decades. It will irreversibly extend the
privatisation of key public services such as the NHS. It will make it
harder to regulate the banks. And it will give US corporations the
power to sue the UK and other states for loss of profits when these
governments introduce public policies designed to protect their
citizens.

It is the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP). If
it goes through, it will be the greatest transfer of power to big
business that we have seen for a generation.

But now for the good news: there’s every chance we can stop it.
Join us for an evening of films and speakers on the growing fight
back against TTIP. Find out how you can join the resistance, what local
actions you can be involved in, and most importantly, discuss how we
can win!

Booking opens for Speak Up for Libraries Conference 2014

PUBLIC LIBRARIES –

THE GRASSROOTS MEET THE DECISION-MAKERS

On 22 November Speak Up for Librarieswill
be holding this year’s national conference on public libraries. It will
bring together local campaigners, union members, library users and
library workers – and give them a rare chance to talk directly to the
people who make the decisions at national level.This
is crunch year for public libraries, with a general election due and
two major inquiries – on England and Wales – reporting soon.Speak Up For Libraries Conference 2014
will have spokespeople from the three major political parties and the
two report panels. It is vital that decision makers understand the real
effects of their policies at local level. Already public libraries are
suffering unprecedented damage. Government-imposed cuts to local
authority funding have – too often – been unthinkingly applied to cut
services, close essential local branches or pressure volunteers to take
on services previously provided by expert staff. The conference will be structured to
enable people to network and discuss their ideas, before engaging
directly with the speakers.

Speak up for Libraries Conference 10am to 4.30pm 22 November 2014 at CILIP
7 Ridgmount Street LONDON WC1E 7AE

THE LINE-UP

Helen Goodman MP (Labour shadow minister)Justin Tomlinson MP (Conservative)LibDem spokesperson TBASue Charteris, panel member of the Sieghart Review in EnglandClaire Creaser, chair of the Welsh Review of the Public Library ServiceBarbara Band, CILIP President, will open the Conference Ian Anstice, editor of Public Libraries News, will chair the workshop feedback sessionAlan Gibbons, author and library campaigner, will chair the panel debate

PROGRAMME

BOOKING

Book your place online on our Eventbrite page.Places are limited so don’t delay booking.All bookings include refreshments and lunch.We are offering an Early Bird booking rate of only £20 per person for those who book a place by 24 October.If places remain after this date they will be at the full price of £25 per person.For queries or need help to book a place, please call 020 8651 9552.

JOIN THE CONVERSATION

Swheatie adds

In response to an earlier attempt by Camden Council to close Highgate Library, it was pointed out by campaigners against closure of that library that Camden's 'consultation' printed document regarding spending priorities was almost exclusively accessed at the library, and the Principal of the adjoing primary school said that having the Library literally on the school's doorstep was a great boon for the children's early start in access to knowledge and research.

The Speak Up for Libraries Conference includes speakers from only three political parties. To find out what all the political parties say about policies and make your own decisions, you could try the online survey at Vote for Policies website and arrive at the 22 November SUfL conference with questions for the invited panel of speakers — or maybe even ask for the panel to include a wider array of political parties, based upon your own 'vote for policies' profile....

After 42 years in social work, Terry Skyrme is stepping down to channel his energies into campaigning. Here, he explains why.

by Terry Skyrme, social worker and Approved Mental Health Professional

I have been a qualified social worker since 1972, right at the birth
of the generic social services department. In a few weeks time I will
complete my last shift. I’ve felt driven to retirement. This post aims
to explain why.

For the last five years I’ve worked as a social worker for a mental
health crisis team and as an Approved Mental Health Professional (AMHP)
in Norfolk.

When I joined, the team had five social workers. We managed to carve
out the space to do proper social work. We worked at times of crisis
with patients and their families to help resolve social and family
problems. We carried out our duties as AMHPs and had a degree of pride
in our work. We truly felt we were making a difference, protecting
patients’ rights, advocating for their entitlement to services and using
our knowledge of local resources.
I realise now we were lucky. When our mental health trust became a
foundation trust in 2009 things changed. The trust claimed this as a
great achievement. In retrospect, it heralded the beginning of serious
cutbacks....

Above title by Swheatie of the KUWG

Report from Kate Belgrave, posted on Sunday

Back to Newham today – where the women of the Focus E15 mothers’ social housing campaign
took the admirable step of reopening some of the long-boarded-up flats
on the Carpenters’ estate. I hope news of this move has reached those
Labour councillors and MPs who are all tucked up nice and warm at
conference in Manchester.Video: entering the flats and being welcomed by the Focus E15 campaigners:

From Zacchaeus 2000 — Justice for vulnerable debtors

It
is no secret that Universal Credit is behind schedule and battling
set-backs. However, with an election looming, it seems the government is
determined to generate some positive press for its flagship benefits
reform.

Lord Freud, the Minister for Welfare Reform, recently announced a
series of pilot projects designed to help claimants prepare themselves
for Universal Credit. In reality, the implementation of these schemes
over the coming months will do little to support poorer residents. Why? Continue reading on Z2K website→

By Swheatie of the KUWG, with some help from American educator John Holt and from Lebanese artist, poet and writer Kahlil Gibran

"Work is love made visible."

— Kahlil Gibran, 'The Prophet'

"I want to combat the idea that any disciplined and demanding activity, above all music, can never grow out of love, joy, and free choice, but must be rooted in forced exposure, coercion, and threat [sanctions]. Most of what I have read about music education says this one way or another. The idea is not only mistaken, but dangerous; nothing is more certain to make most people ignore or even hate great music than trying to ram more and more of it down the throats of more and more children in compulsory classes and lessons. The idea is wrong in a larger sense; in the long run, love and joy are more enduring sources of discipline and commitment than any amount of bribe and threat, and it is only what C Wright Mills called the 'crackpot realism' of our times that keeps us from seeing, or even being willing to see, that this is so. [Swheatie's emphasis]"

— John Holt

As in music education, so in jobsearch and career building? Do those who are intent on issuing sanctions to benefit claimants really have any love for them?

Join us on the LARC roof for the annual BW BBQ! Everyone (who hates workfare) welcome, especially if you're interested in getting involved in the campaign.There'll
be good food, music, action planning for our next week of action
(4th-12th October), and non-workfare related conversations!

Last month this blog republished an article from the Open Democracy website about the housing crisis facing disabled people. Today in Swheatie's inbox an email from the Children's Society serves as a classic case study into how Right to Buy legislation and the privatisation of formerly common ownership housing — council housing and social housing — emphasises the fact that the economic, physical and social barriers that turn a person's impairment into a disability (Social Model of Disability) are made worse under capitalism. (Capitalism tends traditionally to only regard people as producers or consumers, though maybe these days it values investors more — however unfairly or illegally their capital is generated?) As stated in Wikipedia, the online encyclopaedia:

The social model of disability is a reaction to the dominant medical model of disability which in itself is a functional analysis of the body as machine to be fixed in order to conform with normative values.[1]
The social model of disability identifies systemic barriers, negative
attitudes and exclusion by society (purposely or inadvertently) that
mean society is the main contributory factor in disabling people. While physical, sensory, intellectual, or psychological variations may cause individual functional limitation or impairments, these do not have to lead to disability
unless society fails to take account of and include people regardless
of their individual differences. The origins of the approach can be
traced to the 1960s; the specific term emerged from the United Kingdom in the 1980s.

The message in my inbox was headed, 'My blind granddaughter needs a place to live', and heralded a Care2 petition.

action alert!

When
my little granddaughter Amelia was 11 weeks old, we found out she was
blind. She and her family need to find a new place to live very soon so
she can develop to her full potential.

Professionals in the vision impairment team as well as health care
professionals have told us that Amelia's current home is unfit for a
blind baby. Because the house is privately rented, Amelia's parents are
not allowed to make the kinds of adaptations that would help her so
much.

The house has massive steps made of Yorkshire stone that are impossible
to adapt to meet the legal requirements so a blind child could go up and
down them safely and learn about the outside. The upstairs banister has
gaps that Amelia could fall through. The window sills have sharp edges,
not curved ones that would be far safer as Amelia learns to explore her
surroundings. The floors must be replaced with laminated ones so it
would be far less dangerous for Amelia to move about in her walker.There are so many little things that need to be done to create a home that is safe for Amelia!

Health professionals and a local councillor support our requests for a
new house for Amelia. But North Yorkshire Homechoice says Amelia's
family does not qualify for urgent rehousing because they already have a
home. They do not understand how inappropriate, and unsafe, Amelia's
present home is for her and why she so desperately needs to move into a
new one. Once Amelia maps out the house where she currently lives, it
will be tremendously difficult for her to adjust to live elsewhere.

At the root of this problem is a crisis in disabled people's housing
exacerbated by Right to Buy legislation, government non-investment in social housing, and an out-of-democratic control global
housing market. This has been referred to already on the Kilburn Unemployed blog and is often spoken of at public meetings by Revd Paul Nicolson, who is now Chairperson of Taxpayers Against Poverty. See his September 2012 blog piece, "It's the land economy stupid."

Councils and judges too often talk about 'proportionality' in terms of
the needs of individuals when housing waiting lists are huge.
Yet disability equality trainer Michèle Taylor points out that the word
'requirement' is more empowering than 'need': 'requirement' connotes
rights and responsibilities.

The meeting features speakers including
Peter Beresford (Chair of Shaping Our Lives and Professor of Social
Policy), June Sadd (Mental Health Survivor and Trainer) plus front line
social workers and Disabled People Against Cuts. We'd love you to come,
but also to tell your colleagues, service users, friends, trade unions
and others about it.

The
plan of this meeting and the charter is build a coalition of user led
organisations (ULOs), front line mental health practitioners and all others to
build radical alternatives to austerity and fragmentation in Mental
Health services.

Interest in this meeting and the SWAN Mental Health Charter gathers pace, so we must announce a change in venue - the meeting will now be held at the larger John Barnes Library (not Finsbury Library as previously advertised)275 Camden Road Islington London N7 0JN - the nearest tube is Caledonian Road.

We hope to be able to offer free food
from a local community group supporting adults at risk. There is free
Saturday parking in a road adjacent to the venue and the venue is
accessible to wheelchair users and people with mobility impairments.

Admission details and why this meeting is important

Any expressions of interest?

NB: If you are interested in attending the event, please email swanlondon AT googlemail.com - it will help us plan.Also, if you would like to be involved in helping out on the day, make contact using the same route.

The
next general SWAN London evening meeting will be a few days beforehand
on Tuesday 4th November at 18:30-20:30 at a venue TBC. This
will focus on the effects of austerity on Social Work and the Frontline
programme. We will also devote a section of the meeting to planning for
the mental health meeting.

If
you would like to be removed from the Social Work Action Network (SWAN)
London mailing list, please reply to this e-mail with your full name
and e-mail address stating 'Unsubscribe' in the subject line.

From Revd Paul Nicolson of Taxpayers Against Poverty

Job
Seeker Sanction Advice is an excellent new voluntary organisation that
is run by former DWP staff who were disgusted with the harassment of
claimants. It gives claimants advice on their rights and how to
successfully appeal unfair sanctions. If anyone you know is threatened
by DWP harassment and unfair sanctions please let them know about JSSA
and do give them your support too. Thank you!

MIPIM (Le
marché international des professionnels de l'immobilier - The
international market of professionals in real estate) is an
international property event hosted in Cannes, France each March. It
is hosted by Reed MIDEM and advertised as one of the largest real
estate shows, including an exhibition area, networking events and
expert-led conference sessions over a period of 4 days.

They are coming to London for a huge global

property event

in London on

the 15th - 17th of October.

MIPIM
attracts people from a wide variety of real estate sectors. It aims to
facilitate business between investors, corporate end-users, local
authorities, hospitality professionals, industrial and logistics players
and other real estate professionals.

In Tottenham w

e
already have experience of the corrupt practices of MIPIM who were
party to an invitation to a Haringey Councilor to a meeting on a Yacht
in Cannes in the South of France

, some of whose expenses were paid by investors,

to discuss the redevelopment of council houses in Tottenham; that means the demolition of them.

Turning
the UK into an international free-market in property can only mean more
cash flowing into private hands, out of the UK, and away from the
common good of every UK citizen and the need for truly affordable
housing to rent o

Report by Pambles of the KUWG

KUWG was here!

Swheatie,
CJ and I (Pambles) joined Mike, Lindsay and Howard of UNITE COMMUNITY's Camden & Islington Branch to
speak with claimants as well as asking them to fill questionnaire. We
met a woman whose work history involves music and woodworking, so
naturally JCP [JobCentre Plus] want her to stack shelves or do bit of cleaning.

Showing hope, showing caring

A lady on WRAG [Work-Related Activity Group of Employment & Support Allowance claimants] told CJ she is desperate to get onto the Support Group [where she cannot be hassled in 'work-related activity. Swheatie suspects that that was the lady who went to the Jobcentre with a helper and the support of a crutch. She looked very troubled on entering and leaving the Jobcentre, and was chased after by one of the staff who said, "You left your bag behind," which he then handed her.]

C&I Unite Community survey and KUWG banner and budget box

CJ also heard that a man with one remaining lung (the other having been
removed) was taken from ESA [Employment & Support Allowance] and had to apply for JSA [JobSeekers Allowance] as he is not sick
if he has one lung. Rumours that Kuwg has his other lung are untrue. A
very sweet lady came up to me and said we did good work. She told me of
how she was lucky enough to have good support from 3 organisations and
after a year her benefits got sorted and with the backpay she went to
Dorset. Very nice.

Pambles and Swheatie with their collective handiwork

Empty box, not empty rhetoric

Here are the photos of Kuwg in the very civilised [area of] Islington. [Swheatie suspects that it is in either Caledonian Ward or Barnsbury Ward.]

Cracking apart? Call on KUWG and Unite Community for help!

PS.
One claimant announced to us that English people are useless — to
which Swheatie responded with, "Including you?" that Swheatie can be a bit on
the tangy side.

The
world’s largest property fair, known as MIPIM, is coming to London next
month for the first time in its 25 year history. Developers, financiers
and politicians will be meeting to do deals that create unaffordable,
insecure housing around the UK.

The
undemocratic process of MIPIM also affects who controls land and how it
is used, contributing to the corporate takeover of our community space
and public services.

We plan to resist, and say ‘Our communities are not for sale!’

Invitation

The
Radical Housing Network invites you to a public meeting to find ways
groups can work together and organise to say 'No to MIPIM' - a world’s
biggest property conference which is happening on the 15th - 17th of October in London.

We
think this is an opportunity for different political movements to build
relationships and stand together against a key process in the
exploitative property market.

MIPIM enables investors and
developers to meet and take control of our land - land in use for
community benefit such as public space, social housing and services like
the NHS.

Currently being planned in response to MIPIM UK is:

15th October: Block Boris (#BlockBoris)

Call-out to protest the opening of MIPIM UK at Kensington Olympia

16th, 17th October: Alternative Conference

Two days of speakers on talks from different political movements about the effects of MIPIM and how we can respond collectively.

Come to the public meeting on the 16th of September to get involved and find out more about these plans.

More on MIPIM

MIPIM
proudly describes itself as the world's largest property fair,
attracting around 20,000 investors, developers, local authorities, and
banks each year to "find new locations", "network with potential business partners" and "find new projects and assets to invest in."(MIPIM website)

Typically it takes place annually in Cannes, France. This year will see the first MIPIMUK, to be held at London’s Olympia 15-17 October. Billed as "the 1st UK property trade show gathering all professionals looking to close deals in the UK property market" - a gathering of professionals and elites looking to profiteer from UK land and property.

Why?

Local
authorities that attend are on the lookout for potential business
partners and corporate interests who'll collaborate on yet more
'regeneration' plan. We don't want more boutique hotels, offices, luxury
housing and shopping centres, we don't want our neighbourhoods to be
gentrified and entire communities evicted.

MIPIM
promotes an unsustainable, privatised and profit-driven approach to
property ownership for the benefit of a small elite that destroys our
communities and keeps millions in poverty. We've had enough, and we
aren't taking it anymore. Join community struggles across Europe taking
action in the run-up to MIPIM UK.

Messages of Solidarity

Send your message to londonnotforsale AT gmail.comwhich will be passed on to the MIPIM coalition and publicised via social media.

(Please alter and add to the text below in order to include your own views on property and land speculation).

We
[name of individual and/or organisation] fully support the UK MIPIM
protest "Say NO to MIPIM: YES to housing justice for all!"

Monday, 15 September 2014

Prefacing note by Swheatie of the KUWG

When leafleting jobcentres, KUWG members have often spoken to unpaid family carers in their 50's who have a caring responsibility for a parent in their 90's. Merciless jobcentre staff frequently tell them that they must do 'volunteering' for a charity a 3 hour return journey away from home or be sanctioned, when the carer who is a Jobseekers Allowance claimant has been endeavouring to get a local placement with, say, WH Smiths so that — in case of emergency — the can be much closer to the parent in need of their care. The care/claimant is told that if they do not do the jobcentre's bidding, they will be sanctioned.

We also get similar reports from parents of small children, while the single parent is attempting to build a career for themselves via attending a pre-university course. The parent is told that if they do not take on a conflicting commitment at the jobcentre's bidding [and that holds no real career prospects for them] they will be sanctioned.

The jobcentre workers might say they are only following the legislation. Consider what questions might be asked of ministers from that. And, what merciless 'tough love' legislation dictated by investment banker turned welfare reform minister Lord Freud, wealthy, Common Agricultural Policy-subsidised land owner Iain Duncan Smith and their corporate lobbyist friends is really teaching children about life?

From Carer Watch — a self-help online network of unpaid family carers

Are you an unpaid family carer?

Are
you worried about cuts to benefits and social care? Have you been
affected by lack of respite? ...... and so the list goes on.

We
are compiling a list of questions to be sent to Ministers from ALL main
political parties. Any responses will be posted on this blog.

Please add your question in the comments below or send email to Rosemary at admin AT carerwatch.com

Please share with your networks

***************

What others are saying -

In
the last few months we've heard again from local authorities about the
chronic underfunding in the social care system. Figures from ADASS show that there has been a 26% reduction in social care budgets over the last four years.

As
a result, we are seeing a rapidly rising number of older and disabled
people who struggle to get the support they need to simply get up, get
dressed and get out of the house.

This
is placing unbearable pressure on family carers, who are simply unable
to fill the gap left by care cuts. The number of people providing
full-time care to loved ones is now over 1.4 million, many of who are
being pushed to breaking point.

The
new Care Act is bold and ambitious. But delivering on it is dependent
on putting the social care system on a sustainable financial footing.We
need all political parties to be bold and commit to investing in social
care, so that older people, disabled people and the families who care
for them get the support they need to live well.

The
General Election in 2015 is a crucial opportunity for carers’ voices to
be heard. So many issues have impacted on carers in the last four year –
changes to the NHS, in welfare benefits and cuts to the services
available locally.

Carers
votes count. Carers should be able to access adequate support to ensure
they and the people they care for are well supported, healthy, and have
a life of their own.

All
political parties should make it a priority to recognise the needs of
carers. Making sure the rights won under the Care Act in England are
properly implemented, including providing the funding to do this, would
be a good place to start.

Just
as more and more families take on caring responsibilities, carers are
facing a combination of cuts to social care and benefits. As we approach
a general election, all political parties must pledge to stop cutting
carers support and urgently put in place measures to prevent carers’
financial hardship and ensure social care services can meet growing
demand.

Without this we will see growing numbers of families pushed to breaking point, forced to give up their jobs to care and at risk of debt, isolation and exhaustion.

Commenting on Blog Contents

Comments are approved unless abusive, obscene, completely off the subject, disguised advertising or libellous. Publication of a comment does not imply that the blog administrator or KUWG agree with it.

Please note if I respond to comments it is in my Google log in — never 'Anonymous'

Commenters cause less confusion when they use their own names or pen names. A host of 'Anons' can give very mixed messages. Even if you use the technically easier 'Anonymous' button to make a comment you can still put your name at the end.

Benefits sanctioned? Take mass action!

An average of 1700 benefit clamants are sanctioned per year in each London parliamentary constituency. One of them might be writing parliamentary candidates in your polling constituency right now. How about more people who are sanctioned writing candidates in your parliamentary constituency and asking relevant questions at 'hustings' debates in your area?

Meeting structure

Helping you feel at home: We meet weekly in the Small Hall at KingsgateCC and start gathering from 3pm, attempting to start the meetings at about 3:15pm and definitely before 3:30pm.

Bring and share refreshments are included. We are not like the 'No eating or drinking on the premises' jobcentre.

The formal meetings start with firstname and what benefit we are on or a one-liner about what brings us to KUWG. (Pensioners and other allies welcome.)

We then ask for casework from those present, arrange who will help with what case, and go onto discussing campaigning leafleting and such outreach activities. We also arrange who will do the chairing or facilitating and note-taking for the following week. Rotating these roles helps minimise the risk of being dominated by one person and helps us build our skills as we share the workload.

Meetings actually finish at about 5:20pm to allow for putting tables and chairs back and leaving the kitchen facilities ready for the next group.